- Serves 4 to 8 - Ready in 1 hour -
*uses up 200g blackberries which is a cereal bowl's worth - can be fresh or frozen*
Gather together…
200g butter.
1 cup plain flour.
2 cups porridge oats.
1/2 cup brown sugar - to include in the crumble topping.
6 medium-sized apples (approx. 600g of un-cut apples) - either eating or cooking apples can be used.
200g blackberries, so a cereal-dish-full (washed and drained) - fresh or frozen, either works well in this dish.
1 tsp ground cinnamon - to sprinkle over the fruit.
1 tbsp brown sugar (use any brown sugar) - to sprinkle over the fruit.
Get cooking…
1. Gently melt the 200g of butter in a medium-large pan on the hob (set a timer for 3 minutes so you don't burn it!)
2. Once the butter has melted, turn off the hob and add to the pan; the 1 cup of plain flour, the 2 cups of oats and the 1/2 cup of brown sugar and mix. The consistency will be similar to crumbly, unbaked, oaty cookie dough. Set aside.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C (180 C fan) or Gas 6.
4. Peel the 6 apples and chop into 0.5 cm-thick, bite-size slices. Immediately after cutting, put the apple slices into a bowl of cold water (whilst you chop the rest of the apples) - to stop them turning brown in the air.
5. If the 200g of blackberries are frozen, defrost them in the microwave on MEDIUM-LOW for three minutes or so, until soft but not hot - any juice released during microwaving can be mixed in with the fruit to ensure the crumble is moist. If they are freshly picked then wash them well and drain them well.
6. Drain the apple slices in a colander and tip them into a large, fairly shallow over-proof dish (approx. 30cm x 15cm in size).
7. Add the 200g of room temperature blackberries and sprinkle the apple / berry mix with the 1 tsp of cinnamon and the 1 tbsp of brown sugar. Stir gently but really well - to ensure a good distribution of berries throughout the apple slices.
8. Using the back of a spoon, press the fruit gently down so it lays flat (so that the crumble topping will be able to cover the filling more easily).
9. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top of the spiced-and-sugared-fruit and spread the crumble topping out evenly.
10. Bake in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes - slightly longer than if you were just making an apple crumble as the heat needs to penetrate the berries too (but you don't want to over-cook this crumble or the filling turns to pink apple sauce - which is luckily, still delicious...)
10. Finally set the oven to 'GRILL' and brown the top under a high heat for 2 minutes. Enjoy!
11. Any uneaten crumble should be cooled and then kept in the fridge, with a lid / beeswax wrap covering the dish for up to three days. This recipe's crumble layer is deliciously thick, but it solidifies into an impenetrable layer in the fridge - so to serve the crumble the next day you'll need to microwave on HIGH for 20 seconds+ to soften the crumble layer (be sure NOT to microwave the beeswax wrap though, if that's what you were using to cover the dish in the fridge). Any re-heated crumble needs eating up whilst still warm, which is common sense food safety practice.